Dish care products, particularly hand dishwashing products, have traditionally been marketed in a variety of forms such as scouring powders, pasteous compositions, aqueous liquids and gels. Typically, these products have attempted to satisfy a number of criteria to be acceptable to consumers. These criteria include cleaning effectiveness, in particular effective grease removal and effective cooked-, baked- and burnt-on soils (such as dried-on food residues) removal (“cleaning benefit”). Furthermore, a number of additional benefits have to be satisfied for a hand dishcare product to appeal to consumers such as skin feel, mildness to skin, rinsability and sudsing volume (“additional had dishcare benefits”). Ideal hand dishwashing products should combine both cleaning benefits and benefits”). Ideal hand dishwashing products should combine both cleaning benefits and additional had dishcare benefits. Indeed, ideal hand dishwashing products should effectively remove from dishes soils, such as grease, cooked-, baked- and burnt-on soils and the like, cause little or no irritation to the hands of the user of the hand dishwashing products, should provide a significant amount of suds during the hand dishwashing operation and should be easily rinsable.
It is also highly desirable to deliver the above described cleaning and additional hand dishcare benefits from a disposable product. Disposable products are convenient because they obviate the need to store cumbersome bottles, jars, sprayers, sponges, reusable dishcare cloths, brushes and other forms of clutter including hand dishcare products capable of providing the cleaning, mildness, feel, rinsing and sudsing benefits. Disposable products are also a more sanitary alternative to the use of a sponge, reusable dishcare cloth, brush or other cleaning implement intended for extensive reuse, because such implements can develop bacterial growth, unpleasant odors, and other undesirable characteristics related to repeated use.
The wipes of the present invention surprisingly provide effective cleaning and additional had dishcare benefits in a convenient, inexpensive, and hygienic manner. The present invention provides the convenience of not needing to carry, store or use a separate implement (such as a dish cloth, brush, sponge and the like) and a liquid or powder hand dishwashing detergent. These wipes are convenient to use because they are in the form of either a single, disposable wipes or multiple disposable wipes, which after being wetted are ready for cleaning dishes in a hand dishwash operation as. In addition, the disposable articles of the present invention may be removeably attached to a handle or grip suitable for moving the article over the surface to be cleansed.
The wipes of the present invention are suitable for hand dishcare applications to clean “dishware” including dishes, cups, cutlery, glassware, food storage containers, cooking utensils (cookware) and the like. They may also be useful in cleaning household hard surfaces, in particular hard surfaces found in kitchens such as sinks, worktops, fixtures, appliances etc.
In a further object of the present invention the wipe comprises features which increase the general stiffness of the wipe. Traditional dishcloths are made from relatively flexible fabric making them useful for reaching into the corners of dishware, but are difficult to grip. On the other hand, a scourer or scrubbing sponge is comparatively less flexible and is consequently easier to grip, but is not sufficiently pliable to reach into the corners of dishware. Dishwashing wipes of the type discussed herein can tend to have flexibility of the same order as traditional dishcloths. It is therefore a further benefit of the present dishwashing wipes in that they can be manufactured so as to provide an appropriate level of stiffness in order to balance the needs for gripping the wipe and pliability to reach into corners.
In particular, it would be desirable to improve the stiffness of the wipe when wet. Traditional dishcloths tend to have relatively low stiffness both when dry and when wet. Dish care wipes can give relatively high stiffness when dry, but the stiffness tends to decrease significantly when the wipe is wet. The same applies to synthetic sponges, which exhibit very high dry stiffness, but significantly reduced wet stiffness. In a preferred aspect of the invention the wipe comprises features which increase the ratio of wet stiffness to dry stiffness.